Writing the Research Plan Section: Specific Aims

Slide 1: Writing a competitive mentored K award grant application

• 4 main sections of the grant application:
  • The Candidate
  • Statements by Mentors, Co-Mentors, and Collaborators
  • Environment and Institutional Commitment to Candidate
  • Research Plan
    • Specific Aims
    • Background and Significance
    • Preliminary Studies
    • Research Design and Methods

Slide 2: Section 4: Research Plan

• Reviewers recognize that an individual with limited research experience is less likely to be able to prepare a research plan with the breadth and depth of that submitted by a more experienced investigator.
• Nevertheless, a fundamentally sound research plan must be provided.
• For candidates who require substantial didactic training as part of their program, the research plan may cover less than the full period of the award.

Slide 3: Strategies that work & Mistakes to avoid

• Build a team: Don't try to go it alone!
  • Seek opportunities for collaboration.
  • Identify collaborators to fill gaps in your expertise, especially a mentor or collaborator who is well known.
  • Consider multidisciplinary approaches.
  • Recruit senior colleagues who can provide advice and periodic peer-review of your grant application (e.g., overall scope, specific aims, methods)

Slide 4: Strategies that work & Mistakes to avoid (cont'd)

• Find a good idea: The idea must be creative, exciting, and worth funding.
  • Concentrate ideas in your area of expertise that would make an impact on public health.
  • Do your homework; make sure your topic fills a gap in the existing literature.
  • Pose interesting, testable hypotheses, whenever possible.
  • Brainstorm potential topics with mentors and colleagues.
  • Keep in mind that your topic should fit the mission of the NIH, which is to increase our understanding of biologic processess, diseases, treatments, or prevention.
  • Just moving science forward is not enough; so, tie your science to curing, treating, or preventing disease.
  • You will be judged on the likelihood that your research can make an impact on public health.

Slide 5: Strategies that work/Mistakes to avoid (cont'd)

• Less is more: Don't bite off more than you can chew!
  • An overly ambitous grant application can make reviewers question your ability to achieve your goals and also to wonder whether the project has been thoroughly thought through with your mentors.
  • Many grant applications are not funded because they propose to do too much and are viewed as lacking focus.
  • For new investigators, reviewers will be more inclined to give you a fundable score if you bite off less work to do.
  • Remember: Focus, focus, focus

Slide 6: Strategies that work/Mistakes to avoid (cont'd)

• Don't procrastinate: Time is your greatest resource and your most important asset.
  • Get started early (at least 4-6 months before grant appliction is due).
  • Make steady progress; arrange dedicated time each week for grant-writing.
  • Get good peer review before you submit.
  • Submit only your best work; shoot for funding on the 1st round!

Slide 7: Distinctive Features of a Research Plan for a Mentored K award

• 3 key things to remember when designing a research plan for a K award.
  1. The research plan is a training vehicle. The research plan should be well integrated with your career development training plan.
  2. The research plan is a means to achieve independence. The research plan should be viewed as a precursor for a subsequent R01.
  3. Mentored K awards provide limited funding. The scope of the research plan needs to be appropriate and feasible, given the modest resources available in a mentored K award.
• A %u201Cmodular%u201D approach is possible, which might include several small projects, such as secondary analyses of existing data, leveraging ongoing cohort studies or clinical trials, or conducting a small pilot study.

Slide 8: Specific Aims

• Length: 1 page
• Style: Non-technical. Write this section for all study section members, since they%u2019ll all read it.
• Function: After reading a well-written Specific Aims section, a reviewer must understand the following:
  • The problem being addressed and the long-term goals of the research.
  • The hypothesis(s) being tested.
  • The methodologic approach and feasibility of the project.
  • The potential impact of the findings.

Slide 9: Specific Aims (cont'd)

• Introductory paragraph(s):
  • Begin by stating the general purpose or long-term goal of your research in terms of its relevance to the mission of the NIH (i.e., improving the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease).
  • The long-term goal should be broad enough to give the impression that this study is part of a larger research plan that will continue beyond the bounds defined in the Specific Aims.
• Clearly state the problem to be addressed *Scope of the problem (describe importance of the problem, such as number of people affected, morbidity/mortality, costs to society).
  • Nature of the problem (what we don%u2019t know that we need to know in order to move forward; provides rationale for specific aims).
• Describe your methodologic approach to the problem (e.g., RCT, observational cohort, case-control study).
  • Describe scope of project and its feasibility (e.g., availability of subjects, leveraging existing resources or infrastructure).

Slide 10: Specific Aims

• Each aim should consist of one sentence: be concise, concrete, and operational.
• Keep the number of aims to a minimum (2-4).
• Aims should be able to %u201Cstand alone%u201D: keep aims related but independent of the successful outcomes of the previous aim.
• State interesting, testable hypotheses, whenever possible.
• Include rationales, when needed.

Slide 11: Integration of research plan with career development plan

At the end of the Specific Aims section, describe how the research plan is integrated with the career development plan (give concrete examples).